Shot!
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: AU. Rachel and Janet's friendship is still tense after Series 3. But will being shot and imprisoned for a while in a house change their lives, and bring out revelations they had never expected to tell anyone never mind each other? Rachel/Janet pairing.


**Disclaimer - I don't own Scott & Bailey, though I've said before I wish I did. **

**Shot!**

Rachel wondered what the hell she was thinking about, agreeing to come to this rather nice restaurant. It was like walking straight into the firing line. She had butterflies in her stomach from her nerves. And the reason for her nervousness was in her line of sight. Her husband, or rather ex-husband, Sean McCartney was sitting next to a window but he hadn't seen her yet. He looked as handsome as ever, but he wasn't as good looking as Janet.

Rachel winced, and fought down that thought. Bad Rachel.

She held back the sigh of sadness. Anger. How could she have been so stupid to hurt Sean, sinking to a low even she hadn't imagined herself sinking too? Rachel was not looking forwards to this meeting, the last time she'd laid eyes on Sean had been back in her flat when he'd moved out, and it had not been a nice meeting. One of the reasons she was worried about this dinner was it would be awkward enough to end up as a shouting match. She'd wondered what he would want from her now, though on the phone his voice had been calm and controlled like nothing had happened, and that worried her.

Rachel screwed up her courage and cautiously walked over to Sean's table. Her ex husband wasn't looking at her, his attention was diverted to staring out of the window, lost in thought. His body language tensed and nervous, that was how Rachel read the way Sean held himself at the moment. That did not make sense to Rachel; she should have been the one who should've been nervous, and she was.

She was terrified. Why was he nervous?

Rachel stood close to the table, just out of reach in case Sean lost control and tried to strangle her. He'd already proven he had a hair trigger and he'd already beaten Kevin up, even if the little twat deserved it.

"Hello Sean," she whispered. Her voice sounded so unlike its usual bolshy self. Her confidence just speaking to him was like the air evacuating from a popped balloon.

Sean jumped at the sound of her voice. "Hello Rachel," he replied. Rachel bit her lip nervously at the detachment in his voice. She silently took a seat and when the waiter came over to ask her what she would like to drink, she ordered a spring water without a moment's thought. At his raised eyebrow, she shrugged. "I've decided to cut down on the wine."

"Probably for the best," Sean replied taking a sip from his beer, but he kept his mouth shut on any other opinions. Rachel was grateful for that, her history with alcohol consumption wasn't pleasant, and she thought it was time to really change that before it destroyed her like it had with her father.

The estranged couple did not speak until the waiter came back with her water. Rachel took a sip from her water, trying to seem relaxed but Sean was as tense as she was. She stared her ex in the eye. He was watching her coldly, but he didn't seem overly hostile. Yet.

"What did you want to see me for?" It was a good question, but one Rachel winced at it since it was so bluntly spoken. It couldn't be helped though, if they didn't start talking soon, just sitting here glaring at each other over their meals, the evening would be like treading on razor blades.

Sean shrugged, a ghost of his familiar, happy go lucky smile on his face. It was marred by a darkness Rachel could say was contempt mixed with hatred, at least that was how she'd categorize it. It could simply have been anger. She sighed inwardly, realising her ability to recognise different emotions had gone walkies tonight. This wasn't going to be easy. But she still had no idea what Sean wanted.

"I just wanted to say sorry."

"What?" Rachel blinked. She may have been a good copper, she may have been able to see things other people might have missed, but when it came to her social life...she was lost. But this was not unfounded; she had betrayed Sean. She had slept with two men, one of them her own work colleagues, and she'd tried hard to avoid Sean. What did he have to apologise for?

Sean looked at his steepled hands. "I'm sorry for pushing you into marrying me. We should have spent more time with each other to see if we were compatible or not, and I should not have dropped bombshells on your head." Sean looked up to see what his ex wife's reaction to his apology was, and he shook his head. Rachel was just sitting there, looking at him in confusion. Looked like Sherlock wasn't on the ball right now.

"Well, that was unexpected," Rachel replied. "You've got nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who should be begging you to forgive me. What brought this on?"

Sean sighed. "I was pissed off," he began. "At least at first, then I started to think. I looked back on our marriage and the way we'd been before the wedding. I realised I'd pushed you away when...it happened," He took a breath, his eyes regretful as he locked onto Rachel's brown eyes which were watering with the emotion that memory brought up. "I'd stopped being interested in you. It's my fault you slept with two men."

Rachel winced.

"Can we still be friends?" Sean whispered. "I won't push you into marriage again, I just want to know we're still okay as mates. I think we're better off that way. What do you think?"

Rachel smiled properly for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

* * *

It had been under a month since Gill's traumatic kidnapping. The good news was she had the support of her syndicate and her family, especially her new soon to be daughter in law, Orla's help, along with her best friend Julie Dodson, but at the syndicate Gill had found herself visiting her two closest female friends - Rachel and Janet the most.

For the three women, life had been hard, especially since Helen had kidnapped Gill and taken her at knife point to the coast before killing herself. It was weird; the three women saw bodies all the time, but Gill had never seen anyone actually physically die before. It was disturbing for her. Her friends and family had been a godsend, and she'd been invited round to dinner by the others - awkwardly - so being around people socially could help her get through what happened. Gill was embarrassed by the attention, but deep down she was genuinely touched.

When Gill looked out through her office windows to look at her team as they piled into work following the weekend, she couldn't help but smile at them secretly. She wished, oh how she wished she could thank them for their kindness.

Her smile faded when she saw Janet Scott walk in by herself, looking at the desk that had once been occupied by her best friend. It was weird knowing that although Janet and Rachel were no longer truly hostile to one another following what happened with Kevin, the pair of them were still on tenterhooks. There was a sense of tension between the pair of them; both of them had said things they shouldn't, and in a fashion Gill hadn't expected from Rachel, the young DC had suggested maybe it would be wiser if the pair of them worked at different desks for a while.

Janet had been taken aback, visibly hurt by the suggestion. So to had Rachel, and Gill had tried to persuade Rachel when she'd said that while there was still tension between the pair of them, that they could work around it, but it didn't make any difference for the young DC. When Rachel had her mind set on something, that was it.

They still worked well together, but there was a significant distance between the pair of them. Gill's brow furrowed in sadness and disappointment over Rachel's newfound attitude and maturity; it seemed what had happened to Helen had affected Rachel as well though the young DC hadn't been there. Some might ask why, but Gill had her suspicions that Rachel had found out Helen had drunk herself virtually to death before finally ending her life with her own knife. It wasn't a big mystery, it was practically public record

Gill called Janet in. "How're you doing? We've got a new case in."

Janet smiled faintly. With every case, her friendship with Rachel was like it had been before. Gill knew that, she just hoped this one would truly mend their friendship once and for all. "Not too bad. How 'bout you? How're you holding up?" Janet asked, knowing if she didn't change the subject she'd break down.

Gill saw Janet's attempt to turn the subject round to HER own welfare, and realised her long time friend just wasn't in the mood for a chat.

"Oh, I'm still going on," she tried to smile, but it felt more like a skull's head grimace. "Orla and Sammy are getting married soon, and I'm looking forwards to that, having Orla as a daughter in law."

"I bet," Janet replied, then she saw Gill wasn't looking at her anymore. She was looking at a point behind Janet. Walking into the office, tall and slim, dark hair gleaming in the light, tied in a simple plait, was Rachel. And it appeared she'd noticed though she was trying not to be too nosy, she just kept her head down and she went over to her new computer.

Janet looked at Rachel, marveling at how beautiful she was with her hair like that, but she was beautiful all the time. It was sad her friend didn't seem to think the same about her. If only she knew...Janet sighed and turned to Gill, who shrugged; the DCI had had her own fair share of falling outs with her best friend Julie Dodson, and they'd always worked things through on their own without outside help, and Gill wasn't going to order Rachel to do anything. There was a lot of grief between Janet and Rachel right now, and they were the only ones who could work their way out of it.

Gill got up, the printed file on the new case in her hand, and Janet silently followed her out. Janet thought Rachel's eyes lingered on her for a moment, but she couldn't be sure.

* * *

Rachel had been in a relatively good mood all morning. She'd woken up fairly early, fresh and rested, had a good breakfast and a shower before making her way to work. Not even the prospect of having to meet and deal with Janet was enough to dampen her mood.

The thought of her estranged friend made Rachel's happy mood slightly slip, but she didn't let that completely make her grumpy for the rest of the day. Since Godzilla's kidnapping, Rachel and Janet had eased up on the hostility though things were still tense between them, and Rachel had decided until something miraculous happened then they would work at different desks. If they worked at their usual workspace before their argument, it would just be tense and they wouldn't get any work done. Rachel knew that work was a good way of dealing with bad feelings, She'd tried explaining it to Janet and the boss, but they'd both tried to talk her out of it, but she'd been firm.

When Rachel finally parked her car and went up to the office, she found Janet in Godzilla's office, but she'd ignored it and sat down before logging on and checking what was new. She sent Janet a faint smile in greeting as she passed. Their friendship was on tentative grounds, but at least they were back on smiling grounds. Janet smiled back, her raised hand lifting up as if to touch Rachel's shoulder before letting it drop. Rachel's smile faded sadly; they still needed to work on that, being comfortable touching one another again.

"Right. Settle down now," Gill said briskly as they entered the briefing room for their morning meeting, a file in front of her on the table as she glanced at the rows of faces. "Last night, a girl was found with a bullet in her chest, it had pierced the right ventricle of the heart. Death was instantaneous. And that's where the bad news comes in; we don't know this girl, she wasn't carrying a purse or a mobile. More bad news, she was in a large, crowded area, and she was in the back alleys."

The entire team collectively groaned in their minds. That was a big help for them, it meant it would be a chore to find just one person who'd seen or heard anything. Plus they'd have to find out who the bloody girl was.

"If it was a mugging, why would the killer use a gun?" Rachel asked.

Gill gestured at Rachel. "That's the crux of the problem, thank you Rachel. Muggers do not use guns unless its for show, and we don't know this girl though we're checking our database, and our list of potential suspects is enormous because she was murdered in a large area, and we're missing a motive. Was it a boyfriend trying to cover his tracks? Was she a drug addict?"

* * *

"Okay, thanks for your time," Janet said to the woman of Number. 12, Rachel right behind her. The moment the woman closed the door, the two women looked at one another.

"Seven doors, no-one sees anything, and no-one hears a thing." Rachel sighed with exasperation as the duo walked off towards their next port of call. They'd been searching close to where the un-ident had been found, knocking on doors and asking people if they'd seen or heard anything. Nothing. They'd shown the picture of the girl, dead and lying on a slab, and nothing.

Both Rachel and Janet had heard the syndicate had already run the girl's face through the PNC, but they hadn't heard anything. The possibility they were dealing with an illegal immigrant was a certainty. Or the girl had lived off the grid.

Janet glanced at Rachel's face. The younger woman usually got a kick out of her work, mostly, but only when they'd had something to go on. If they'd at least known this girl's name, they would've had something to go on. Trouble was, in real life, the soap operas where everybody knew everyone else in the street, sometimes it was true with one or two people, but sometimes it just didn't happen.

The syndicate's hope they found out at least a small amount of details about the victim was the only thing keeping them going, after a few hours of constantly asking the same questions, that got old.

Janet bit her lip, asking herself if she should try and make small talk with Rachel. Ordinarily they'd be practically finishing each others sentences, but with the wedge between them, it might not have been wise.

Rachel caught her expression, and sent her a look Janet translated as 'don't bother, I'm not in the mood.' Sadly, Janet agreed. She didn't feel comfortable talking anyway.

They approached their next door. This particular house looked rough, with a skip out the front that was full of rubbish, bits of wood with rusted and bent nails sticking out, and a busted mattress. Janet and Rachel exchanged a look, almost as though they were playing a mental game of 'Scissors, rock, paper,' and Rachel lost.

She pressed the doorbell, and the pair of them waited.

The door opened, and a rather tall and thin man answered it, and the moment Janet and Rachel saw him they both had the feeling of dislike. It wasn't something they could control, but there just happened to be something about this bloke they didn't like. It was like instinct, but the two policewomen were too professional to shirk their job.

Janet pasted a polite smile on her face, holding her warrant card out to show this was a visit he couldn't ignore.

"Good morning, Mr..." She consulted her book, "Reynolds. I'm DC Janet Scott, Manchester Met Police. Major Incident Team, and this is DC Rachel Bailey," she nodded at the woman behind her.

Rachel nodded at Reynolds, a polite and professional smile on her face that made Janet proud. She was even prouder when she saw that her instinctive dislike and distrust of Reynolds was hidden. "Hello," Was all she said.

Janet turned back to face Reynolds, and she inwardly cringed. Rachel and Janet may have had an instinctive dislike and distrust of the man from the moment they'd met, but they'd hidden that dislike behind their professional masks. Reynolds, on the other hand, did not have such a mask. He glared at them with suspicion.

"What do you want?" he ground out, making no effort to welcome them. Janet had dealt with distrusting people before, but she'd never felt an overwhelming and equal distrust from herself before.

"We're investigating the murder of an unidentified girl," she held out the photo of said girl for good measure, "and we're trying to build up a profile on her, and to find out who'd want to kill her."

"May we come inside?" Rachel asked suddenly.

Reynolds nodded grudgingly, and he stepped back to let them pass. As the two women passed him by in the front doorway, Rachel almost gagged. The man's BO was terrible, and the smell of the house itself was far from nice. When she caught sight of Janet's face as they walked into the slightly messy living room, Rachel saw her eyes watering from how bad it was.

Reynolds wasn't a consummate guest, but he knew better than most that if he answered the police's questions, the sooner they would leave. Janet asked the questions whilst Rachel struggled to get comfortable on the small armchair. It was like something was under the cushion.

She focused on the questioning, and wrote it all down in the records book. No, Reynolds didn't know anything about the girl, no he hadn't seen her. No he hadn't heard a thing. He'd just sat in his dingy little home, eating a takeaway dinner. Rachel glanced down at the side of her armchair. Yep, that was provable. There was a pizza box lying on the ground next to the chair, showing a half eaten Domino's meat feast pizza. Rachel's stomach churned at the flies buzzing around it, and the dirty socks lying discarded nearby. She worked hard to keep her expression as neutral as possible, but she doubted it was working.

Reynolds caught her look, and he narrowed his eyes at her, but he said nothing.

Janet had hoped that questioning Reynolds would've made her feel more relaxed in his presence, but she didn't. He made her skin crawl and the longer they were here it got worse, and one look over at Rachel told her she felt the same way.

Reynolds had been answering the questions mechanically at first, always with yes or no answers. Some of them had needed expanding upon, something Janet had made him do, reluctantly on his part. It didn't help the man's mood, he became more and more aggressive.

Finally he'd had enough. He got up from his seat, and went into the kitchen and out of sight. Rachel watched him go, frowning, and she looked over at Janet. "I'll go and find out what's the matter, you'd better call the boss. Tell her he's acting weird."

"You sure?" Janet asked; she knew Rachel was impetuous at times, but she was tough and capable.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. Just call her. I'll be okay."

Janet waited until Rachel was out of sight before she got her phone out, and she started scrolling through her contacts list to Gill. She'd just tapped on it, and she was just about to call her boss when she heard a sharp cry. It sounded like Rachel.

"Rach? You alright?" Janet got out of her seat, and she rushed in the direction of the kitchen. She stopped when she saw her friend on the ground, a red mark on her face from where Reynolds had hit her.

Janet had her eyes fixed firmly on Rachel, so it took Reynolds moving one of his tree trunk like legs for her to focus on him. Her eyes widened when she saw the gun in his hand. "Don't, bitch," he spat at her, his eyes burning with anger. Janet stayed still, terrified for herself and for Rachel.

Reynolds glared at her before he bent down to pick Rachel up. His sudden touch brought the stunned copper back to awareness, and she started struggling against him, but he slapped her harder.

"Stop it!" Janet shouted, and she was just about to run forwards to wrench the gun away from Reynolds, but he was too quick for her. He leveled the gun at her, and he pulled the trigger. Janet screamed in pain as she felt her leg suddenly give way beneath her, and she collapsed to the ground. The sight and sound of her friend screaming, the bullet being fired, roused Rachel and she tried to stand up, but Reynolds saw it happen beforehand.

Sneering at the thought of wasting another bullet, Reynolds took up the gun and shot the second police bitch in the leg. Rachel screamed as pain clouded her vision, and her eyes watered as she tried to focus on Janet.

Reynolds bent down and slapped Rachel's hands away as he went through her pockets, and he grinned when he saw the pair of cuffs and he took out Rachel's mobile, and he put it on the counter. He walked over, and he searched Janet as well, and he took out her own cuffs.

He grabbed both policewomen, and ignoring their struggles though he had to kick Rachel when the brunette tried to use her uninjured leg to hook onto the staircase. When they reached the room the man obviously used as a bedroom, Reynolds kicked the door in and he threw Janet and Rachel onto the filthy bed. Before either DC could try and escape, Reynolds pounced on them, making them scream under his weight.

"Ah, shut up you police sluts," he growled as he deftly cuffed Janet to Rachel, and used the bedpost to stop them both moving more than a few inches. Without a word, though he smirked and stood up. He leered at Rachel. "See ya later, sexy," he grinned when she whimpered in fear. "Ah, don't be like that," he said mockingly. "You and I are gonna be good friends."

Rachel paled as she pictured what he meant by that, and she only needed to peer at Janet out of the corner of her eye to see her friend had figured it out as well.

Watching fearfully as Reynolds went downstairs, Rachel and Janet barely breathed until the man's footfalls faded before they started to speak fearfully.

"Have you got a spare key?" Janet asked Rachel.

Rachel searched through her jacket pockets, wincing from having to use her free arm, which needed to be bent in certain ways for her to dig through her pockets. She growled angrily, then painfully as the movements sent pain through her leg.

Janet winced as well when Rachel's wriggling also jarred her own leg. "Careful," she hissed.

"Sorry," Rachel winced as she dug through the pockets she kept her cuffs in. "Shit! He took it. Try yours."

Janet gritted her teeth as she moved around, but like Rachel she couldn't find her own keys. She shook her head at Rachel. "I wonder what he's doing downstairs."

* * *

Reynolds was presently in the kitchen, Rachel's phone in his hand. He opened the contacts page, and he found one contact that said 'DCI Murray; Godzilla,' and he dialed the number.

"Rachel, what is it?"

"This isn't Rachel," Reynolds growled out, "Now shut up and listen." He told the DCI exactly what he'd done to the girl, and what he'd done to Rachel and Janet. He finished off by warning them not to try anything stupid, and he cut off the phone. He grabbed a hammer from a tool box and he smashed it into pieces before doing the same with Janet's.

* * *

For Rachel and Janet, time seemed to have no meaning. Lying on the filthy, unmade bed, the two policewomen had nothing better to do than to listen out. They'd heard Reynolds speaking to someone downstairs in the kitchen, and the sounds of smashing.

They didn't have time to dwell on what it all meant. Reynolds had gone quiet, and that was worse than knowing where he was and what he was doing downstairs in the kitchen.

"I'm terrified about later," Rachel whispered fearfully, keeping her voice low in case Reynolds came up to them.

Janet swallowed. The thought of watching as Rachel was being raped by this murderer terrified her too, and with their present luck Janet had no doubt he would rape her too. That was what frightened Rachel, for Janet she would keep strong, but if the bastard raped Janet she didn't know what she'd do. "Me too," Janet whispered back. "I just wish we'd brought a uniform with us-"

"What good would that have done?" Rachel interrupted, fear overriding her desire to be civil to her friend. "He'd still have attacked us, we were asking him questions, and he lost patience with us. Do you honestly think a uniformed officer would've stopped him? He'd have shot the uniform if we'd brought one with us, and lets face it, uniform didn't bother putting a few of their lot with us."

Janet closed her eyes. Inwardly she thought a uniform would've helped, but it was debatable. Rachel could be right, then again she might not be. "How's your leg?" she asked at last.

"Aching," Rachel replied. "I'm sorry Janet."

"Sorry for what?" Janet was confused. She sensed what Rachel was apologising for had nothing to do with what was presently happening.

Rachel sighed. "I'm sorry for what I did, for what happened with Kevin, and Taisie," she bit her lip at the thought of Janet's daughter had seen that night.

Janet closed her eyes and looked away in exasperation. "Rachel, I've already told you-" She felt a hand and long slim fingers take her by the chin gently, and she felt the softness as Rachel's free hand. She opened her eyes.

"Yeah, I know, but I feel terrible about it all." Brown eyes met blue when Rachel focused on Janet's face by a distance of centimeters. Janet felt her heart speed at the sight of those brown eyes, and judging from the blush on Rachel's face she was just as aware of their proximity. It was time, Janet realised, to tell Rachel what really had made her pissed off besides her having sex in front of her daughter.

"You were right, Rachel," Janet whispered. She elaborated when she saw the confusion on Rachel's face, and she couldn't help but think, even with the pair of them handcuffed together - one of her dreams, though not like this - how cute she looked confused even if she it was a bad look for her. "You were right about what you said, about me being jealous, about you and Kevin-"

"Yeah, and I'm sorry," Rachel tried to say. It became too much for her, and tears started welling in Rachel's eyes as she sobbed. Weeks of pent up emotion burst from her. "I'm so sorry."

Janet wrapped her arm awkwardly around Rachel, tricky with the cuffs, holding her comfortingly.

"Jealous because it was Kevin, and not me," Janet had to say.

Rachel's face flushed red, and she pulled away from Janet's warm embrace, then she went so pale Janet feared she would faint. "What?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yeah, I know, you probably don't feel a thing for women," Janet replied, looking away as best she could despite the pain in her leg, and wondered if it was infected now, but most of all she wanted to avoid Rachel seeing the hurt she felt. So she was surprised when Rachel once again took her face in her hands. "You...?" She couldn't pick the right words to voice her question, and Janet nodded. She wasn't offended.

"You couldn't be more wrong," Rachel said at last, and Janet's heart lifted. "I do feel a thing. I think I realised it when I split up with Sean, and Kevin, but it was there, nagging away at my mind, and tit that I was I ignored it," she couldn't begin to describe the pain Kevin had put her through with his betrayal. "I knew I'd been making a mistake marrying him, but when we were married he treated me like I was something just in the background. But the thing is I wanted nothing more than to kiss you in the office. I had dreams about you, before and after the marriage with Sean, Janet." Rachel looked away. "We've divorced, me and Sean. We've decided just to be friends. He realised he'd pushed me into marrying him too quickly, hence why everything went downhill."

Janet blinked, surprised her friend had taken such a mature outlook. Part of her wondered if Rachel was being sincere about the dreams part.

"When did you first...you know, fancy me?" Rachel asked bluntly.

Janet snorted. "Do you remember when you first stayed round my place after Savage kicked you out of that fancy flat?"

Rachel nodded, and Janet bit her lip demurely. "Do you remember when you came out of the bathroom, that robe you were wearing as you left the bathroom. Well, I can tell you, it definitely showed your legs off. I said sorry, but you waved it off with a smile and a blush, but I don't think you realised it at the time. I went to bed with images of those legs."

Rachel's eyes popped open. "Then you started fancying me?"

"Well, I had been watching you out of the corner of my eye,"Janet smirked, forgetting momentarily they were hostages. "And since then, I've been watching your legs."

Rachel snorted. "My legs? Lady, your legs in those tights go on for miles."

Janet almost laughed. "Yeah, and your lips look so kissable, and when you run, god your hair looks like chocolate, woven and flapping in the wind."

All humor left Rachel's face as she realised something. "So, you've had a crush on me for sometime, it must've been bitter for you to see me and Sean marry?"

"It was," Janet replied sadly, "but I was sorta glad you broke up with him. But what I wanna know is why we're talking now."

Rachel sighed, her mind flashing back to where she'd gone out of her way to avoid Janet. "I'd hurt you, badly. You welcomed me into your home, and you trusted me. What happens, I drag a bloke in, drunk, and I have sex with him, and your youngest sees everything. Fuck, Janet, I was so stupid. Worse. Kevin was a step below Nick bloody Savage, the little knobhead might've gone to the papers, but he didn't try to kill anyone," she thought for a moment, and amended that statement, "Well, he did almost drive a woman to commit suicide."

Janet didn't want to talk or think about Helen Bartlett, let alone Kevin or Nick Savage. "What do you think he's doing?" she asked curiously, whilst it was lovely getting her feelings for Rachel into the open, she had to remember where they were.

Rachel twisted her head to look out the door, motioning Janet to keep quiet as she listened. Janet followed suit. There was no sign of Reynolds, no smell of his BO, and definitely no sounds.

"I dunno," she whispered at last, her fear returning. A quiet rapist/murderer was not something to be happy about, if Reynolds was raving downstairs they would at least know where he was. If he was quiet they didn't know what the man was planning.

Rachel moved as best she could, trying to keep her injured leg alone. "I can't see him," she whispered. "We haven't heard a thing from him since he smashed whatever it was downstairs."

"What's the bet he smashed our phones?"

"No bet," Rachel replied grimly. "He did it all right."

The silence was broken by the sound of police cars and the telltale sound of an ambulance approaching. "I think he's called Godzilla," Janet murmured. Who else would go crazy by sending two thirds of the emergency services to a place like this, but they were both eternally grateful for their boss' speed.

Rachel checked her watch for the time, and she blinked. "We've only been in this dump for an hour," she observed.

A thought occurred to Janet as well, but one which was more serious. She looked down at her leg, and compared it with Rachel's. Both of them were lying on a filthy bed, in a disgusting house, and from what she remembered about gunshot wounds, they risked infection. She told Rachel her fears.

The younger brunette licked her lips, and she shrugged off her jacket. "What're you doing?"

"Something we should've done when we found ourselves in this mess," Rachel replied, grimacing as she managed to get her jacket off, though she did it awkwardly, and she was left with it half on. Janet's eyes widened when she realised what her friend wanted to do even before Rachel told her.

"Take some of it, and tear it off. Use some of it for yourself, and we'll tie the material to our wounds."

For the next ten minutes Janet worked on ripping Rachel's jacket, it wasn't easy since they were both handcuffed to the bedpost. Janet had to work on using her bound arm and her free arm to pull as Rachel gripped it with her own arms and with her legs. When the jacket was torn into two bits, Janet handed Rachel her bit, and she took hers. They'd both been trained in how to treat gunshot wounds, and they both lifted their legs, wincing equally when the pain shot through their limbs.

As they worked on tying the makeshift bandages round their wounds, Janet said to Rachel, "I'm sorry about your jacket, I'll get you another."

Rachel chuckled. "Don't worry," she replied, "I've got plenty more at home. It's just," she looked around the disgusting bedroom, trailing off. Their chances of not catching any infection in a place like this were looking more and more remote. "I wish these bandages were sterile."

"Me too," Janet shifted, and when she looked back at Rachel, she saw her friend staring at her, or more accurately staring at her hair. "What're staring at?"

"You've got hairpins."

Janet frowned as she asked herself why Rachel would say that, then she realised what Rachel was getting at. "You can pick a lock?"

Rachel chuckled. "Sure. It's amazing what you can pick up and practice on from the net." All humor fled her face when she thought more about her little epiphany. Rachel was inwardly kicking herself for not bothering to check herself or Janet for anything they could use as a crude lockpick for these fucking cuffs, but she was also realistic and practical.

"Hold on," she said to Janet. "We can pick the locks, but then what? We're stuck upstairs in a house, with a madman with a gun who has no qualms about shooting someone. Where do we go, we can't go downstairs without making loads of noise, and if we move around he'll hear us."

"And we can't go out through the window," Janet said, her mind flashing back to the state of the front garden, that skip entering her mind. She voiced that thought. "We could jump into the skip, that mattress should break our fall. Trouble is-"

"Yeah, our legs," Rachel finished, frowning. "Shall we do it anyway, in case Reynolds comes up?"

"Yeah, definitely," Janet replied at once, "would help us fight back, even with our legs on the point of infection."

Rachel nodded, and with her hand outstretched, silently asking for her friends permission, and with her nod, Rachel took out the hairpin. Janet watched her silently, knowing Rachel needed to concentrate. She watched as her friend with skillful hands took the pin, and bent, taking off the rubber bit on one end, and inserted the pin inside the lock of the cuff holding Janet's hand to the bedpost, moving it up and bringing it out, showing the end had been bent.

Moving the pin back in, Rachel worked on the lock for a few moments before the lock clicked, and Janet was free. She rubbed her wrist, and smiled with relief. "Do you want me to do yours?"

Rachel handed her the pick, and with instructions she made as clear as possible Janet found herself enjoying this. "I've got to see these pages on the net," she smiled at her friend when she'd successfully picked the lock on the cuffs. Their distance was so close that neither women hesitated, and they leaned forwards to kiss each other. Janet tasted Rachel; she had a tangy taste, rich and sweet. They felt a spark, more powerful than anything they'd experienced before. She wanted more, and she deepened the kiss.

Janet tasted like honey, sweet like her very nature. Rachel wanted more, and like Janet she deepened the kiss. They were rudely interrupted by Reynolds shouting over the phone to someone. They jumped back from each other, and listened to Reynolds' ranting.

"The negotiators are here," Rachel commented.

"Do you think he'll listen?" Janet asked wryly. Practically both women knew the negotiators could only say so much, they knew Reynolds held the cards. He had them upstairs, and thought they were so hopeless they hadn't found a way out, he was arrogant enough to think they couldn't or wouldn't use a hairpin to pick the locks. Or it had never occurred to him, but either way the police would know he'd injured both of them.

That changed everything. If he'd injured two policewomen, he had nothing to lose. Reynolds was a cornered animal, and that made him more dangerous than ever.

"Not a chance," Rachel replied grimly. She could tell it was a lost cause just by listening to Reynolds. Like Janet she knew the negotiators wouldn't play games with Reynolds, not since they knew he'd wounded them both. "There are two ways they can deal with him, send in the firearms unit, and take him by surprise. They overpower him before he can do anything like take a shot at 'em, or they kill him."

Janet frowned. She didn't like the prospect of being in the middle of a gunfight. "Do you think they're planning that?"

Rachel looked at her. She'd been spending most of her time since their kiss and hearing the bastard rant and rave over that phone sitting up, watching for any signs of Reynolds in case he came upstairs and she had to put the cuffs back on. "Wouldn't you? They're probably making their moves now, using the negotiators to keep Reynolds occupied. Trouble is, the bastard might've watched too many movies to fall for it. I hope they know what they're doing." Both Rachel and Janet knew the firearms detail would know what they were doing. They were not idiots.

It turned out he hadn't, for all his bluster Reynolds was easy to wind up, and no matter what the negotiator said to him, Reynolds took it the wrong way. Janet and Rachel held each other as he started yelling threats, to them, and letting his mouth run loose.

"The brunette girl," they heard him shout, "She's a hot little thing," Janet tried not to look at Rachel, but she could hear fearful breathing. "I'm looking forwards to ruining her tonight."

Janet moved closer, protectively to Rachel, and she caught sight of her friend's face. Very little frightened Rachel Bailey, but she did have feelings and she could be frightened, and most of it was connected to those she loved. Janet had heard personally that Rachel had broken down when Geoff Hastings had stabbed her, and she'd only just held on when Gill had been kidnapped. But Janet knew, however, the most devastating blow Rachel had received had been when she'd lost her baby.

Rachel had only just gotten used to the idea of having a child, of making a life within her, and then it was snatched from her. It took her weeks to recover from it, and when Gill bollocked her she'd almost died of the pain, a few hours later she nearly went catatonic when she'd heard about the miscarriage. Gill, not Rachel.

For all her bluster, her bolshiness, and her sometimes stupid actions, Rachel was a deeply kind and caring woman. But hearing Reynolds talking about Rachel, about what he was planning to do to her made Janet angry and protective. It got worse. "I might even do the blond one," Reynolds laughed over the phone, and Janet felt Rachel's arms wrap around her protectively, and she leant in her friends embrace.

Rachel closed her eyes, coming to the decision, if it saved Janet's life, she would gladly let Reynolds rape her. She'd let her friend down, she'd used her so many times...What better way than redeeming her than by going down the drain?

Suddenly they heard the sounds of smashing downstairs, and Reynolds' voice faded, but they did hear the mixed shouted warnings of the firearms unit as they shouted at Reynolds to surrender and to drop his gun. They heard a gunshot wound, and they jumped in fright. They heard another gunshot wound, and they heard stamping coming up the stairs.

Clad all in black with a helmet and wrapped in body armor was one of the most beautiful sights the two women had seen, of course excluding each other.

Rachel, not one to resist a prank, held up the cuffs. "Have you got the keys?" Janet caught her eye, and they laughed their heads off before wincing at the pain in their legs as they accidentally shifted.

That night the armed policeman went away, shaking his head at the madwomen they recruited for Major Incidents.

* * *

It was just as Janet and Rachel had feared. Their injuries had been infected, and they were being treated for it. Trouble was, well they both hated lying in hospital beds. Fortunately they had to share a single room, and that was okay in their books. They spent their time after the surgery just talking and laughing about everything and nothing really when they had their first visitors.

Gill came in, followed closely by the rest of the gang, and Alison, and Elise and Taisie, and Dorothy.

"You two okay?" Rob asked before Gill could ask the question that was on all their minds.

Rachel and Janet glanced at each other. "We will be," Rachel began.

"When we get out of these bloody beds," Janet finished. The two looked at each other. Everyone from the office glanced at each other as well, their heads starting to ache with the knowledge the pair of them were doing that thing where they finished each others sentences. It was spooky.

"Are you two talking again?" Lee asked warily; like the others he loved it when the two women were friendly, but recently the tension in the office had been unbearable.

Rachel and Janet kept looking at each other. In front of everyone, they saw as they had a non-verbal conversation with their eyes, and a smirk appeared on their faces. All the team recognised the smirks. Gill closed her eyes, "Oh god, here we go." Taisie and Elise looked at one another, bemused and slightly disturbed, though Taisie was snickering, delighted her mother and Rachel were friends again.

"We've-" Janet started.

"Made up-" Rachel took over.

"From our-"

"Argument, yeah. Now-"

"We're back to normal!"They both said at the same time, catching each others eyes and they started laughing.

Gill shook her head, and Alison asked in bemusement, "Do they do that a lot?" she had to ask. Mitch caught her eye, and her made cutting motions with his hand, shaking his head. Too late.

Janet and Rachel were only now getting in the stride of their double speak. "Do-"Janet began.

Rachel finished, "What?"

"That," Alison asked exasperatedly.

"Trade-"Janet said.

"Secret. We can-"Rachel took over.

"Finish each other's sentences, 'cause we're-" Janet added.

"So in tune with one another." Rachel grinned. Elise blinked, and she caught the look on Gill's face, and she clapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing at the long suffering look the woman wore. She nudged Taisie, pointing at Gill, and Taisie almost lost it. She quickly stopped when Gill quirked a brow at her.

Lee groaned, and he held his aching head. Rachel smirked. "You okay, Lee? You look like you've got a-"

"Headache." Janet chuckled.

"Oh, stop. Please stop," Gill pleaded.

Janet and Rachel looked at one another and then looked back at their friends and family. "Oh," Rachel pouted, sounding like a little kid. "Why do you have to-"

"Spoil our fun? You're all so-"Janet copied Rachel's huffy and childlike persona down to a tee, complete with whine and puppy dog eyes, with folded arms for good measure.

"Mean." They both finished.

They looked at each other, and decided enough was enough. "Come on guys, we're both okay. Yeah, we're pals again." Janet rolled her eyes.

"But," Rachel smirked, "if you want us to finish each others sentences, just ask."

"No thanks," was the most popular reply to that one. The two invalids caught each others eye, and they both burst out laughing.

Gill sat down close to their beds. She got down to business. "We got Reynolds."

All the humor left the duo in the beds. "We know," Janet replied.

"We saw him being taken out on a stretcher,"Rachel added grimly. Because it was simple to take a man downstairs out, they'd gotten him out as quickly as they could as the stretcher party struggled through the tight confines of the house to reach the two women. They couldn't have been taken out of the windows, such a job would've taken too much time, and there was a skip in the way. It would've needed to move, and since it would've been incredibly painful for the women to be allowed to stand and go down the stairs the paramedics had taken their time to get them out. The paramedics had to take into account the bullet wounds were now infected, and they were painful.

Both Janet and Rachel had seen Reynolds regardless, he'd been moaning, sobbing about how it hurt. All of his boldness, his macho attitude had just...crumbled, faded away as he received a taste of his own medicine.

He was lucky by all accounts, the bastard had been shot in the shoulder, in the arm which had ended with the hand holding the gun. It had been the only way to stop Reynolds, and he'd been in so much pain and shock the firearms personnel had only to take it away from him. Afterwards everything was easy.

"Where is he now?" Janet's quiet tone was dangerously calm. She and Rachel both knew he was receiving medical attention, particularly in this hospital. They just needed to know he was under guard, fortunately the police officers in the room knew that. "Don't worry, Janet. He's under guard. They've gotten the bullet out-" Pete began, he didn't get far though.

"Well, I hope it hurt," Rachel interrupted darkly. "That bastard was planning to rape us both. He told us that himself and we heard him shout it down a phone."

"Yeah," Gill bit her lip, holding back the anger she herself felt for the way her friends had been treated, and just about hiding it. "We heard. I had to listen to him as he used your phone - its been smashed by the way - to tell us what he'd done to you."

"What's going to happen to him?" Janet asked, trying desperately to get the subject changed. Just knowing what Reynolds had planned to do with them both was enough to see her having nightmares for a long time.

"We're searching his house now," Pete said.

"Doubt the search will tell us who that girl was," Rachel said, sitting back in her pillows with a sigh. Aside from the pained ache in her leg she felt comfy.

"True, but we might find something at the house, you know that," Gill replied.

All this talk about murdered girls was driving Alison crazy since it was her own sister, her baby sister, who almost got killed. "When are you getting out?"

"When the infection dies down," Rachel replied.

* * *

_Janet and Rachel had been cuffed to the bed for what seemed like days. Their watches said it was 7.00 at night, it was pitch dark outside but the police lights cast a flickering blue glow in the room. _

_Licking her dry lips, Janet tried hard not to think of food or water. It'd been hours since she'd last eaten, and her last meal had been at breakfast. She hadn't been planning on getting kidnapped today, her main plans had been house to house enquiries, and hopefully rebuilding the bridges she'd had with Rachel. _

_She looked at her friend. Rachel had fallen half asleep. _

_The house was so quiet Janet could hear the silence like a harsh buzzing in her ears, so when she heard Reynolds stomp up the stairs louder than a herd of elephants stampeding, his breathing sounding like a steam train pulling out of a station. _

_The sounds roused Rachel. When Reynolds smacked the bedroom door open, his massive form filling the doorway, the two policewomen were both wide awake, breathing fearfully and watching as Reynolds slowly closed the door to maxmise their fear. _

_Reynolds walked over to Janet's side of the bed, a hideous leer on his face as he gazed down at the terrified copper. Slipping a hand into his pocket, he took out a pair of handcuffs. Janets. And a key. _

_He placed his massive paw over Janet's chest, weighing her down as his second hand uncuffed the bracelet around Janet's wrist, and he quickly cuffed the now empty bracelet round the bedpost. Rachel's eyes shot open as she realised what was going to happen. _

_"No!" Janet shouted, realising it as well, wondering why no - one outside was breaking down the fucking door. Couldn't they heard her shout? Reynolds slapped her around the jaw, and she was stunned. "Don't worry, bitch. You're next."_

_Janet was still stunned when Reynolds took her unresisting body over to a nearby chair standing in the corner of the bedroom, and he set her down on it, and painfully pulled her arms behind so he could cuff her. _

_When Janet got her senses back, she looked around for Reynolds and spotted him immediately. He'd taken off his shoes and trousers, kicking them to the side. Rachel was wide eyed with fear as she tried to struggle futilely, but with the bullet wound to her leg, and the infection setting in, she could not move herself, let alone slips her wrists out of the cuffs. _

_Reynolds crawled closer to Rachel, and he took her legs silently and stopped her from struggling. He yanked off her boots, and unzipped and unbelted her trousers, making her scream in fright. Reynolds didn't stop her screaming, it seemed that instead of annoying him no end, it turned him on. _

_"Soon bitch," he murmured though his quiet voice sounded like a cement mixer, "Soon you'll be screaming louder than you are now."_

_Janet wanted to help, but she couldn't. She watched as Reynolds pushed himself into Rachel, making her throw back her head and scream as he raped her without giving her time to get used to his size. She watched fearfully as Reynolds relentlessly pounded in and out of Rachel, making her scream harder, her eyes screwed tightly shut, tears running down her cheeks. _

_Reynolds slapped her face in appreciation. _

_That was it, Janet screamed loudly. "Come on, get your arses in gear. She's being raped!"_

* * *

"Janet, Janet, wake up!" She felt someone shaking her awake. "You're having a nightmare, wake up!"

Janet's eyes shot open, and she looked around wildly, recognising the room after a few moments. Still breathing heavily, she looked into the face of her best friend. The space between the two women was small enough for Rachel to get out, and shake Janet.

Their legs had healed enough for them both to move about the room without help, but it was the nightmares that made the whole stay worse for the pair. When they'd first arrived Janet and Rachel had both had nightmares simultaneously, Janet had dreamt the pair of them had been raped, and Rachel had dreamt the pair of them had been killed. The nightmares had gotten so bad, so frequent the nurses had needed to be on call at all times to sedate the two policewomen.

Now they could move about the room, albeit in a limited way, they could now care for one another.

"Rach," Janet gasped.

Rachel smiled, but she thought it was more of a grimace than a full-blown smile. Pity, she'd been trying to be reassuring. "That dream again, I heard you say she's being raped."

Janet panted, delighted she'd been dreaming rather than experiencing the whole ordeal in the real world. "Yeah," she breathed, lying back on her pillows with her hair cast about like a halo. To Rachel, despite the surroundings and the circumstances, Janet was beautiful.

She only wished the dreams were something she could wave away. Rachel hated seeing her best friend - girlfriend, she couldn't help but think - in this sorry state. Rachel could count on both hands the number of times she'd been woken up by doctors and nurses because of the nightmares. Both women had told the hospital staff to not say anything about their nightmares to their family and friends, the thought behind that had come from a debate between the pair of them.

For Janet, her daughters and mother were regular visitors, and her mother was fussing over Janet. She wasn't fussing over Rachel, but her granddaughters were. For Rachel, she had her sister and her family coming in. The difference between Alison and Dorothy was Rachel's older sister mothered them both, not one.

Holly Bailey, Rachel's niece, was Elise and Taisie rolled into one; she was boisterous and bold like Taisie, like her aunt, and smart and sensible like Elise, like her aunt again. But Janet loved her anyway.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Rachel interrupted her thoughts. "You might as well, I've practically heard them all just like you have with mine."

Janet sighed. She told Rachel the story of the nightmare, of the rape Rachel had gone through. It wasn't special or even unique, and Rachel was right when she'd said she'd heard them all before, didn't stop them from being so chilling.

By the end of the tale, Janet was losing her hard won composure. She and Rachel had recovered from their argument, their relationship was beginning to flourish though not the way she or Rachel would've wanted, but it was flourishing.

And there she was, ruining it by crying her eyes out.

"Hey," Rachel whispered tenderly, sitting down and wrapping a wire covered arm around Janet, wincing lightly at the ache in her leg. "What's wrong?"

Janet's face when she turned to Rachel only made the brunette wrap her arms tighter around her girlfriend. "I was so...useless in that nightmare," she whispered. "I was just there, and he was raping you. No one was doing anything."

Rachel tugged Janet closer. "I think that was the point," she murmured, propping her chin ontop of Janet's head as she rubbed the blonds back comfortingly. "I've got a confession to make," she said and only her strong, wiry arms with her chin ontop of the head kept Janet where she was, safe in Rachel's embrace. "When we were in the house, in real life, and the armed cops were about to break in, do you remember when he kept saying he was going to rape us?"

Janet didn't speak. Rachel felt her head move in a bent nod under her chin, so she went on. "Well," she began shakily, "I thought if the bastard did come up, and rape us, I decided to allow him to rape me to save you."

Only Rachel's strong arms kept Janet from breaking free, but they didn't stop her from giving off a muffled shriek. "What?!"

A nearby nurse burst into the room. "What's going on?"

Rachel bit her lip. "It's okay," she replied hoping the nurse got the message. "I've got it."

Fortunately the woman didn't have much empathy. She left the room without a word.

Janet wriggled in Rachel's arms until the brunette let her go. She looked Rachel straight in the eye, fuming. "How could you think that would make me better Rachel?"

"What makes you think it was, and keep your voice down," Rachel added with a hiss, glancing towards the door. "Don't want the nurse to come back anyway."

Janet, however, was still glaring at Rachel, and Rachel sighed. "Okay," she said tiredly. "I've used and lied to you, so many times. I broke your trust, dragged you into trouble with Gill, and worse I shagged someone in front of your own daughter. I've had time to think over the past few weeks Janet, when Helen kidnapped Gill, she drank herself to death. Compare Helen to me."

"Helen was nothing like you-"

"Wasn't she?" Rachel asked grimly. "She was drunk, I get drunk. Or rather I did. I've been off the booze for ages."

"That doesn't make her you," Janet reminded herself what was causing this latest issue. "And how could you think him raping you would've saved me? I love ya, and I hate it when you get hurt. How could you think you'd save me by letting him rape you? He'd get bored of you and he'd start on me."

Rachel looked down.

Janet softened. Fuck, she thought to herself. I can't stay angry at her for long, though I can try. "What made you so damn sure I'd appreciate you telling me this?"

Rachel didn't answer immediately. "I love you too Janet, more than you can imagine. But I can't get it out my mind that I've hurt you so many times. I figured if he raped me, you'd be okay."

"That's stupid, and you know it," Janet said bitingly, but she wrapped her arms around Rachel. "My little hero."

Rachel pulled back, glaring Janet in the eye. "Little?! That bastard Reynolds called me a hot little thing."

"Sorry," Janet replied, about to apologise when she noted the glint in Rachel's eye. Oh, very good she thought with irritation but it was good natured. "Very funny," she deadpanned. "I should've known you'd joke around."

Rachel giggled. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Janet couldn't help but laugh as well. "Oh, I wish you'd been around in my day Rachel. You brighten my life up no end, and you drive my mum mad."

Rachel's smile disappeared. "That's a thought. We didn't think about the reactions everyone would have after we told about us being together now."

Janet's cheerfulness winked out like a lightbulb being turned off. "You've got a point," she said thoughtfully as she wondered what reaction her family would have to her and Rachel being together.

Her daughters might be okay. They adored Rachel despite the blip with Kevin, but would they be open minded enough to accept her? Well, she remembered something, Elise might.

"Elise might," Janet began, and she told Rachel her eldest had asked her how she felt about gay relationships before Elise told her about her kissing another girl because she hated boys. That made sense. Elise, like Rachel and indeed her mother and Gill, had been cursed with a string of bad luck with boys. Oh, she was pretty, but Elise had grown tired of the constant break ups, and she'd become more and more attracted to the opposite sex until she'd kissed a girl, and that was it.

Rachel's eyes were bulging by the end of the story. "Bloody hell," she muttered. "Who would've thought sweet, innocent Elise Scott would be a lesbian?"

Janet chuckled. "I know."

"What about Taisie and your mum, when Taisie caught me in bed with Kevin she was stunned. How will she react with the pair of us?"

Janet shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, and as for my mother...Well we could always discover God."

Rachel snorted.

"What about Alison?"

"Oh, she'll be shocked," Rachel said cheerfully. "But she'll get over it. With time."

Somehow that both reassured Janet and didn't at the same time. Rachel saw her biting her lip, and restrained the urge to lean over and suck on her lip. She shrugged, to hell with it.

Janet blinked in surprise when Rachel latched onto her lips, and she moaned into the kiss. "What's brought this on?" she asked when she pulled away from Rachel.

"You looked delectable when you bit your lip," Rachel chuckled before putting on a sultry, teasing tone. "You have no idea how alluring you look when you do that. You always do it when you've got something on your mind."

Janet chuckled before she explained what it was that she was thinking about. "I'm not convinced about Alison accepting us-"

"Janet, my sister likes you. Always has. If it was somebody else, she might be a bit...funny," Rachel told her. "You've got nothing to worry about. Try and relax, we've only been together for a good week. We've got plenty of time before we tell anyone."

Janet blew out a breath. "Okay," she smiled, though she looked to Rachel just a little bit sick. Rachel sighed, and she wrapped an arm tightly around Janet's shoulders. "We'll be okay," she said, hoping Janet didn't see the smile on her face.

It didn't feel convincing.

* * *

Fortunately, the pair of them didn't suffer any more nightmares. But their discussion the night before had made their sleep uneasy, and when they woke up ready to receive visitors, they were both a little...tense. Not to mention they were both tired.

Rachel and Janet had spoken during the night after their little heart to heart, and they'd made the decision to tell Janet's family when they arrived. The couple would be lying if they said they were looking forwards to it, it wasn't everyday two girls learnt their mother was a lesbian.

Minutes ticked by, and Rachel and Janet were fighting to maintain their composure...Until finally the sound of the girls voices and Dorothy's exasperated tones echoed down the corridor.

Janet and Rachel glanced at one another. It was time to face the music. The two women did their best to smile in greeting as Dorothy led the girls into the room. Taisie and Elise hugged their mother first before moving onto Rachel. Janet laughed as Rachel did a vanishing act with the two girls hugging her tightly, leaving only a long mop of dark brown hair exposed. Rachel's pale arms were wrapped around Taisie and Elise, giving them a squeeze in turn.

"Girl's," Janet called.

Elise and Taisie turned their heads. Their embrace around Rachel was loosened as they turned to face their mother, and Janet could see her best friend return. Her face was flushed from a lack of oxygen, but there was a shy smile on her face. Janet inwardly sighed, realising it was time. Unfortunately it meant Elise would have to be honest.

"We've got something to tell you," Janet began, her eyes meeting her eldest daughters, conveying a message. Rachel saw the message, just as she realised Elise wasn't getting the hint. She tightened her own grip around Elise so the girl turned her eyes and met Rachel's own brown eyes, and Rachel brought the girls head down to her mouth so she could whisper in the girl's ear.

Taisie and Dorothy frowned, wondering what was so important Rachel would need to speak to Elise by whispering. Their frowns deepened when they saw the look on Elise's face growing more and more astonished with only Rachel's grip around her stopping the teenager from getting loose, and Taisie, who was closer to the pair of them, could barely hear what Rachel was whispering, frowned harder. Rachel smiled at the teen, and nodded encouragingly.

Elise glanced over at her mother, her shock growing when she got out of bed, and walked over to Elise and Rachel quietly.

Finally Dorothy had had enough. "What is going on?"

Surprisingly, it was Elise who replied. Rachel had let her go, and the teenager was looking her straight in the eye. "Erm, before we get to that, I kinda have a confession to make." Elise waited for the room to go quiet, but she looked nervous. Rachel surprised everyone by getting out, and hugged her.

"Go on, love. You can do it."

"Do what, what the hell is going on?!" Dorothy was losing her patience, so much so Rachel was afraid a doctor or a nurse would walk in and demand to know what was going on. She wasn't the only one; Janet, Elise, and surprisingly Taisie, looked at her.

"Calm down, gran," Taisie scolded.

"We don't want a riot with the doctors," Janet added.

Elise lost her composure for a moment. "I'm a lesbian," she got out before freezing, she looked fearfully into Rachel's eyes. The older female sighed and tightened her grip around Elise. Unfortunately Dorothy and Taisie saw her arm tug Elise close to her form, and they reached their own conclusions, and Dorothy jumped into the fray with all the destructiveness of a stampede.

"You little slut!" she spat angrily, stalking over to Rachel and raising her hand -

Rachel let go of Taisie, and grabbed hold of Dorothy's hand, keeping it immobile. The old woman's eyes widened, she tried to pull away but Rachel was too strong. She looked at Janet for help, and saw her daughter biting her lip. "She's not with me," Rachel said calmly and rationally, drawing Dorothy's attention back to her: she'd learnt that Dorothy was more easy to get through to with rationality than with anger. "Let me explain-"

"Explain what?" There was almost no reasoning with the old woman. "You and my granddaughter-"

Help came from a surprising quarter. "Gran, Elise is with a girl at school." Everyone in the room looked with shock at Taisie, who looked at her elder sister sheepishly. "Good luck, sis."

Elise, however, stared back at her sister wide eyed. "How-"

"I followed you," Taisie smiled honestly but nervously. "I saw you get over the breakup with your last boyfriend. Told ya he was a pig, but you didn't listen to me."

"Wish I had," Elise muttered, looking down at herself. The...things that bastard had wanted her to do. She'd thought her mum would throw a fit when she'd described how the pig in question had tried to make her give him a blow job. Both Elise and Janet hated oral sex, but neither of them suspected it was because they weren't sucking another woman.

Dorothy was floored by this. Her hand clasped in Rachel's grip forgotten, the older woman turned to her granddaughter to explain.

Elise sighed when she saw her grandmothers expression, seeing the want for answers plainly. "I broke up with my boyfriend," she began. "Things between us had been...rough," she stressed the word before elaborating. "He kept asking me for sex, but I didn't want to. The things he wanted me to do for him," she shuddered, maybe a bit melodramatically, but it sent a message to her grandmother that things had been pretty bad. Elise carried on. "Then, when we broke up, and I caught him snogging one of my friends. Then...I met Sandra." Elise's face brightened. "She's nothing like my ex, and we started kissing and clubbing. That's it for now. But I think you might want to let nan go, Rachel."

Rachel let go of Dorothy at once, and stepped back. Dorothy's eyes widened when they saw Janet, her Janet, and Rachel embrace. She...had to sit down, staring at Rachel and Janet as they hugged, showing no need to use words for the old woman.

Everyone stared at Dorothy, but she looked almost catatonic.

Janet swallowed, fearful of her mother's mental state. "Mum," she began tentatively.

"No," Dorothy whispered.

Rachel licked her lips as she wondered what she could say to Dorothy. But before she could say a word, the old woman's eyes flickered from face to face before she fixed on Rachel.

"How can you go out with her Janet, after what she's done?" Disgust creased Dorothy's face as she glared at Rachel.

"For starters, I haven't gone out with her yet," Janet replied, her voice rising in her anger.

"But she left her husband, who knows if she's pregnant after sleeping around with other men?"

Rachel, not wanting her new girlfriend to fight all her battles, spoke up. "No chance of that. I had a miscarriage," she interrupted. She blinked her eyes, wishing she could bury her head in the bed pillows, and suffocate herself. She'd hoped never to admit this nightmare.

Everyone in the room looked at her.

"What?" Janet whispered in horror. She wondered what other secrets Rachel had under her belt and if she wanted to know them all.

Rachel looked down. This was everything she'd been trying to avoid, but if she and Janet were going to be together then she would have to be honest with them all.

"My family, on my mother's side, have always had terrible luck with pregnancies," Rachel began. "Before she left, mum told me, Alison, and a half listening Dom about it all, but mostly me and our Alison. She was warning us, but we already knew most of the details. When she was pregnant with Alison, it was a very difficult time for both mum and Ali." Rachel sighed and looked down at her hands and she sat on the bed.

"Mum almost lost Ali twice," Rachel whispered. "But she delivered her okay, but when mum became pregnant with me, well lets just say it got worse. She had to go through all kinds of appointments, get checkups on practically a daily basis. It got so bad mum became so frightened she didn't get out of bed, but she did because the low life she'd married was too lazy to care about himself or even Alison."

Rachel looked down at her feet. "Alison remembers this time only too well, she told me it was one of the most terrifying points in her life. Bear in mind this was before mum left us, and so Alison still loved her. Ali, being the sensitive one, became our mothers's nurse." She chuckled suddenly. "Ah, the stories Alison could tell you about that time, not that she will 'cause she doesn't like talking about our mum." Rachel's face darkened as her mind went to the time when their mother had just...given up and left them.

She knew there was more to the story than what Sharon had told her, and Rachel knew it.

Enough of that, she wanted to get this story done.

"It was...disconcerting and terrifying to learn mum almost lost me a couple of times," Rachel shuddered as she admitted that, thinking about all the close calls she'd had as she'd become a police officer. None of that compared to almost dying in a miscarriage. Elise and Taisie silently went over and hugged her tightly, suddenly frightened to hear this story.

Janet followed her daughters over. Rachel grinned as best she could, but she could see in Janet's eyes she wanted to have a long talk with her.

"When mum was pregnant with Dom," Rachel sighed as she remembered that time. She'd been fairly young at the time, less than a good few years older than Dom, but she'd remembered the fear her mother had gone through when she'd almost lost him. "She suffered from a few near misses. In the end, she wanted our dad to stop touching her. Can't say I'm surprised, but it made him more alcoholic, the dirty knobhead loved sex. Alcohol became the substitute, too bad it tore the remains of his pathetic life to pieces."

A part of Rachel wondered if life without Dom would've made things better or worse for the family from that moment on, and she squashed it down at once. It was all in the past and could never be undone. And her dad, well she wasn't sorry to know the bastard was dead. Cremated so then his body wouldn't take up space in a graveyard plot. He'd taken so much space in life she hadn't wanted him to take any in dead, he'd finally give something back in death.

Taisie's voice was calm like her mothers as she spoke to her hero. Yeah, her hero worship had taken a battering recently when she'd caught Rachel with Kevin, but she didn't hate the older brunette like her nan did. "What happened with Sean, Rachel?" she asked quietly. She had a good idea, she could tell the others also had one too. She just hoped it was wrong.

Rachel's eyes closed and tears flooded them. "We'd been married for four months, and he kept trying to make me pregnant. Considering how much time we spent in bed, he was surprised I wasn't pregnant sooner." She added wryly. "He succeeded, and I remembered the last time I'd been pregnant.

I also kept the problem our family have had in mind, so I went through appointments. I tried to tell Sean about the history of miscarriages in my family, but he was so...so excited about the idea of having another kid, as if he hadn't had enough already. He rang all his mates, telling him the good news," she opened her eyes and used her hand to rub them dry. Moisture from her tears shone on her hand. "Premature, as it turned out. I was barely able to carry it a good few weeks, never mind 9 months."

"I kept trying to tell him about what had nearly happened each time mum had been pregnant. He wouldn't or couldn't see it happening to me, I told him to ask mum to tell him. Hell, I would've invited mum round, something I didn't want. If the drunken cow had found out where I live, then I'd never get rid of her."

Taisie, Elise and Janet were more than aware of how little Rachel thought of her mother. They knew she'd only given her the benefit of the doubt because she'd been trying to be mature. But Rachel had been badly let down when Sharon had gotten so drunk she'd made an embarrassment of herself at Rachel's wedding. Her DAUGHTER's wedding.

"In the end," Rachel went on, "I had a miscarriage. I won't go into details about how it happened, but I will tell ya Sean just became...cold, whereas before he'd been sweet and charming. He just started ignoring me, even taking Hayden and going away for a couple of weeks. Not once did he ever say anything nice about me when I lost our baby." Rachel's face scrunched up when she began to sob. "I tried, I really did try to keep it going, but I couldn't."

Janet tightened her arm around Rachel's shoulder. "Rach, it wasn't your fault."

It really wasn't; now she and her family had heard the story, Janet could see the gaps in her knowledge about Rachel and Sean's marriage. All she wanted to know was one thing.

"Why didn't you say a word?" she asked.

Rachel looked into the eyes of her best friend, and she almost cried harder than before. Janet's eyes were filled with such kindness Rachel felt as though she was once again using her friend's sympathy. "Because I thought that Sean was hurting, and he'd eventually get over it," Even as she said it Rachel knew she'd made a mistake.

"Rachel, you know that marriages break down easily if that happens," The irony was not lost on Janet; she and Adrian had been happily married with a newborn son. But when Joshua had died, her marriage with Adrian had suffered badly, but it had survived until he'd learnt about her and Andy.

Janet closed her eyes as she realised she and Rachel had more in common than most could see, even their own family. She was sorry that Rachel had lost yet another child, but a part of her wondered if her loss was fated.

Rachel nodded. "I know, but I wanted to face it maturely, you know try and have a decent conversation with him about it, but Sean..." She trailed off with a shake of her head. "Sean just pushed me away. When we divorced and decided to become friends, we spoke a bit about the mistakes we'd both made when we'd been married." Rachel suddenly snickered.

"Ironic, isn't it?" She smiled without any humor on her face. "The first, proper and mature conversation we have, and its as we decide to become friends. Very ironic."

Taisie frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Does Alison know about the miscarriage?"

Rachel looked up at the unexpected question, and she nodded. "Yeah, she came to the flat when Sean had taken Hayden away. I didn't call her. She just came round 'cause I wasn't answering my mobile, and she was worried. Glad she came. She was furious with him, but I told her why."

"Speaking of Alison, has she ever gone through what you and Sharon did?" Elise asked.

"Elise!" Janet scolded.

"No, Janet, its okay, and yeah she had a few problems with her first kid. Alison told Tony about the bad history our family have had with pregnancies, that's why they only have two kids." Rachel said.

"Poor Alison," Elise whispered. Taisie nodded in agreement; whilst the Scott family only rarely saw the other woman, but they knew enough to know she was a loving woman, and despite the sometimes antagonistic relationship between them, the girls knew Rachel and Alison loved each other.

The two girls knew Alison loved children; to know she couldn't risk another pregnancy must be hard on her.

Rachel looked at the three members of the Scott family nearest to her, she read their sympathy well enough, and she wondered just what she had done right in this world to know these three amazing people. Janet, with her kind heart and loving nature, Elise, the mature young girl who was blossoming into a bright young woman, and Taisie, a girl who was sensitive but masked it behind a bravado.

"So," Rachel whispered, hoping the subject would be changed. "Are we...okay, kids?" She asked Elise and Taisie.

The two girls looked at each other, then at their anxious mother, and then back at Rachel. Elise wrapped her in a hug, and Taisie followed closely.

"Oof," Rachel panted as the two girls squeezed her, and her eyes flew over to Dorothy. The old woman was staring at them all, but mostly at Rachel. In the past Dorothy had looked at Rachel with disdain and disgust, but now she was looking at Rachel with an expression the younger woman couldn't interpret.

Rachel licked her lips nervously. She'd always wanted, for as long as she'd known Janet and her family, acceptance from Dorothy, but she hadn't ever received it, and her stupidity with Sean, Kevin and Taisie hadn't helped any of that. Would knowing what had caused the whole mess, or at least some of it, change all that?

Dorothy bit her own lip, it hadn't escaped her notice her family was waiting with baited breath for her judgement. Finally Taisie got fed up.

"Look, nan," she pleaded with big sad eyes. "Give Rachel a chance. Please."

Dorothy had been thinking about it since learning about what had happened to Rachel and the baby she could've had with Sean. She was starting to think, with this explanation, Rachel had been misjudged. She'd watched Rachel closely when the story had been told, and she'd known the young brunette had been telling the truth.

Not that Dorothy doubted that - what kind of person would make up a lie like that?

So, Dorothy looked straight at Rachel's face. "Okay, Rachel," she said slowly. "I'll give you a chance, provided you stay round our place. And I want your best behavior."

Rachel quailed under Dorothy's gaze.

"Hey," Elise said playfully when she sensed the aura of the room shift. "Don't be mean to Rachel."

The End.

**A/N Rachel's infertility problem will make an appearance in the 'Fa-arsed bit' one shots. If you want a sequel to this story then please say so.**


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